Corruption has already massively improved since the heydays of the 60s and 70s, so I doubt your cynicism.
But of all the industries, big planes should be among the easiest to clean up: there’s only two participants in this prisoners‘ dilemma, and they are both, theoretically, under the purview of rigorous enforcement in countries governed by law.
"there’s only two participants in this prisoners‘ dilemma, and they are both, theoretically, under the purview of rigorous enforcement in countries governed by law."
What? No.
There are 1000's of participants, and few of them are under the purview of the law.
1. Someone wants access to a Malaysian Air exec at some hotel event. Bribe someone for info.
2. Someone is overseeing the aircraft regulatory body, their findings will sway one way or another. Bribe them.
3. Someone is drafting legislation to support the state-sponsored purchase of aircraft. Bribe them.
4. The brother of the 'deciding individual' at Malaysian Air hints he can help access. Bribe them.
5. The people responsible for lower-level contractual affairs are putting up a fuss over some little details? Bribe them.
6. The 'respected international consultancy' is putting together the business plan for the national airline strategy. Bribe them.
7. The executives making the purchase want a kickback. Bribe them.
These bribes come in all forms, some of them more or less legal, or more or less ethical - depending on the law.
Does giving the son of the Malay MP drafting relevant legislation a job at Airbus constitute a bribe? Or just congeniality?
Does flying in a team of officials for an all-expenses-paid, swanky getaway at a high-end swiss resort for 'a meeting' constitute a bribe?
In the West, a lot of this happens in fuzzier ways, borderline ethical. In other countries, it's just how business is done.
In other places, like Nigeria, it's pretty straight forward. Once you get to the Nigerian Minister of Natural Resources, he will have spelled out for you by people in his periphery beforehand nature and expected size of the bribe, how it gets transmuted so that nothing 'impolite' happens directly in his presence.
If you're an American IT company that has support offices in the Middle East and Africa that subcontracts the work to local companies, but then wants to end such contracts in favor of direct hires ... and said subcontractors are connected - you will 'pay a bribe' out of the sunshine fund.
If you're IKEA and want to open a store in Moscow, you will pay x% of your revenue to a local 'businessman/thug'. If not - no store! So you wait a decade and realize you have no choice, and so you just pay the appropriate tributes.
Again - the issue is how the plebes in the West are going to react when they start to learn how everything is working.
The only way to 'end' this is to have a lot of various powers on board, and it's going to be different in every country.
It might work out differently in every country, and maybe at different levels of scale, or happen in a different way, i.e. instead of 'kickbacks', execs get lucrative contracts somewhere else or some other kind of benefit.
This will take a few centuries to sort out.
Edit: to be clear I'm not advocating at all for any of these shenanigans.
"If you're IKEA and want to open a store in Moscow, you will pay x% of your revenue to a local 'businessman/thug'. If not - no store! So you wait a decade and realize you have no choice, and so you just pay the appropriate tributes."
But of all the industries, big planes should be among the easiest to clean up: there’s only two participants in this prisoners‘ dilemma, and they are both, theoretically, under the purview of rigorous enforcement in countries governed by law.